Twenty-Six Lists - How I Landed My Dream Job - #twentysixlists

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Welcome to Twenty Six Lists! I hope you'll join me in using some fun List prompts for writing. Every other week I'll share a writing prompt and invite you to link up your list, and wherever the prompt takes you. You may want to simply make a list of five or ten items that answer the prompt, or you may elaborate on the items in your list, or even write an entire article. Be creative, and have fun!

When you were a kid, what job did you think you wanted "when you grow up"? Or how about when you were a teen and getting your first part-time jobs? How did expectation and reality line up? 

I remember that as a young girl, I wanted to be a teacher. (If neither Princess nor Superstar Singer worked out, of course!) So did one of my best friends, and we played "school" together all the time. We took turns being the teacher and student, and I think we were both pretty good teachers! I considered a number of other possibilities as I continued through school, and went off to college aiming for a degree in Music Education. Life didn't turn out quite the way I'd pictured though. I wasn't able to transfer to the university I wanted for my second year, and I was planning to get married, so finishing that degree went on hold as I stumbled into some jobs that might not have been what dreams were made of, but they were excellent jobs and paid the bills. And it seems that my degree is still on hold, but that's okay because I have been teaching for over twenty years!

List #18 - The Jobs You've Had 

1. My very first job was part time at a fast food restaurant. I didn't think about it at the time, but as an adult I've concluded that everyone should have to wait tables or do some low paying service or retail work in their lives. It's a valuable experience to learn to serve others without expectation of thanks or getting much in return, and being a 'servant' teaches you to be courteous and respectful of others. And hopefully you remember that when others are serving you!
2. My senior year of high school I had a sales and customer service job at a cable company. It paid better and I got more hours, but it wasn't what I'd signed up for. I expected to be doing more customer service which I liked fairly well, but I wound up doing mostly sales calls which I didn't like. Sometimes it was fine, but when I was expected to be pushy, I hated it. Again, it taught me something valuable - the people that make those sales calls (I'm talking from legitimate businesses, not those horrible scammy phishing calls from fake companies) are just regular people doing a job; and the people that answer the phone when you call customer service are doing their best but they don't have a ton of control over the company's policies or issues.
3. I took a gap year after high school, and spent it working in accounts and as a fill-in receptionist at a factory. A bakery, actually. A friend from church was the office manager and got me the job, which was good experience.
4. After that first year of college, I went to live in my boyfriend's hometown for the summer (the boyfriend that became my husband the following summer!) and found a job doing accounts at a farm supply company. I enjoyed the people I worked with, and it started out as a great summer job. But I decided it was time to leave when my supervisor started having me make collections calls. I hated that, and went home in tears a few times before deciding that it wasn't right what I was told to do and I resigned.
5. Back home, a business owner from our church was looking for a new office manager, and the boyfriend and I had decided to move to my hometown at year's end, so I moved back home to take that job. It was a carpet cleaning company, but most of his business was cleaning apartments when they turned over and doing water damage clean-ups. Another really good job that gave me valuable experience in managing accounts and business communications.
6. Next full time job was doing accounts and data entry at an aviation company. This was a really cool job most of the time, and it was the first full time job I had that I landed without knowing anybody in the company at all. It's true that who you know matters as much as what you know - sometimes it matters more! - but it's also a great feeling to land a job solely on the strength of your resume and interview! I enjoyed the people I worked with and mostly enjoyed the job itself, but eventually there were some staff turnovers in the office that led to a new office manager that I did not like at all. He skeeved me so much that I turned in my resignation. I was flattered that the CFO tried to get me to change my mind, and offended when that office manager insulted me on my last day by saying that I'd never get another job that good and he expected me to come crying for my job back. That's why it was so terribly satisfying when our paths crossed again after I landed my next job . . . 
7. As comptroller at a heavy construction company. Comptroller was not my official job title, but is essentially what I did. I did all the accounts and ran the office end of the heavy construction part of the company. Sometimes I actually felt like a high-powered office executive! Like the day I was taking my secretary out for a business lunch and met up with the office people from that previous job. Like I said, super satisfying to let that creepy office manager see that not only had I found another job, I was definitely a few rungs up the ladder. Haha!! The company offered to pay for me to finish classes to be a certified accountant, but I turned their generous career offer down because . . . by that time I was pregnant!
8. So Stay-at-Home Mom was my next job!
9.  And after a couple of years, and moving to the USA, I did a couple of stints as a paid church musician. 
10. A few years ago, for fun I applied to work weekends in the tasting room at a winery just down the road from where we live. It was something pretty new, not a job I would have hunted for, but with easy weekend hours and such a close location I figured it was worth a try. I did it for a summer and learned a bit about wine and had a lot of fun. But it was never really a long term plan.
11. My next job, and one I'm still doing now, was managing a small batch coffee roastery. I LOVE coffee, so this job has been an exceptionally good fit! I manage the shop a couple days a week, and it's a special workplace because we have a couple of special employees - the owner's daughter who has Down Syndrome, and another young man who has Aspergers. 
12. And yes, I really do have something like the dream job of my childhood. I have been a homeschool mom for more than twenty years, and this is now my fourth year as a tutor in a homeschool tutorial co-op.

What's on your list? Link up or tell me in the comments!

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Bonus List - Upcoming in Twenty Six Lists so you can think ahead!

September 17 - Simple Pleasures

October 1 - Fall Activities

October 15 - States and Provinces You've Visited

October 29 - Best Costumes

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